Maria Callas (December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and, further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.

Maria Callas

Born in Manhattan, New York City, to Greek immigrant parents, Maria received her musical education in Greece at age 13 and later established her career in Italy.

"The tone of the voice was warm, lyrical, intense; it swirled and flared like a flame and filled the air with melodious reverberations like a carillon. It was by any standards an amazing phenomenon, or rather it was a great talent that needed control, technical training and strict discipline in order to shine with all its brilliance."

Singing style

In 1968, Callas told Lord Harewood:"De Hildalgo had the real great training, maybe even the last real training of the real bel canto . As a young girl—thirteen years old—I was immediately thrown into her arms, meaning that I learned the secrets, the ways of this bel canto, which of course as you well know, is not just beautiful singing. It is a very hard training. You have to learn to read, to write, to form your sentences, how far you can go, fall, hurt yourself, put yourself back on your feet continuously. De Hidalgo had one method, which was the real bel canto way."

About her teacher,  Elvira De Hidalgo

De Hidalgo later recalled Callas as "a phenomenon... She would listen to all my students, sopranos, mezzos, tenors... She could do it all."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Callas#cite_note-documentary-26"> </a> Callas herself said that she would go to "the conservatoire at 10 in the morning and leave with the last pupil ... devouring music" for 10 hours a day. When asked by her teacher why she did this, her answer was that even "with the least talented pupil, he can teach you something that you, the most talented, might not be able to do."

Elvira De Hidalgo about Maria Callas

Matthew Gurewitsch: "In fact the essence of her art was refinement. The term seems odd for a performer whose imagination and means of expression were so prodigious. She was eminently capable of the grand gesture; still, judging strictly from the evidence of her recordings, we know (and her few existing film clips confirm) that her power flowed not from excess but from unbroken concentration, unfaltering truth in the moment. It flowed also from irreproachable musicianship. People say that Callas would not hesitate to distort a vocal line for dramatic effect."

My favorite opera singer, Maria Callas, was one of the most influential figure of the 20th century. She made people love opera and also revived the italian bel canto style. A great soprano with great acting qualities and a complex, but sensible personality.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song" )—with several similar constructions (bellezze del canto , bell'arte del canto )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing.

What is Bel Canto

Since the bel canto style flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the music of Handel<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handel"> </a>and his contemporaries, as well as that of Mozart and Rossini, benefits from an application of bel canto principles. Operas received the most dramatic use of the techniques, but the bel canto style applies equally to oratorio, though in a somewhat less flamboyant way. Nonetheless, singers needed to keep the emotional drama moving forward, and so they used the principles of bel canto to help them render the repeated material in a new emotional guise.

When bel canto appeared

Two famous 18th-century teachers of the style were Antonio Bernacchi<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Bernacchi"> </a>(1685–1756) and Nicola Porpora<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Porpora"> </a>(1686–1768), but many others existed. A number of these teachers were castrati. Singer/author John Potter declares in his book Tenor: History of a Voice that:"For much of the 18th century castrati defined the art of singing; it was the loss of their irrecoverable skills that in time created the myth of bel canto , a way of singing and conceptualizing singing that was entirely different from anything that the world had heard before or would hear again."

Bel canto teachers

One reason for the eclipse of the old Italian singing model was the growing influence within the music world of bel canto's detractors, who considered it to be outmoded and condemned it as vocalization devoid of content. To others, however, bel canto became the vanished art of elegant, refined, sweet-toned musical utterance. Rossini lamented in a conversation that took place in Paris in 1858 that: "Alas for us, we have lost our bel canto".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_canto#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOsborne19941-11"> </a>

Why bel canto disappeared

Franz Sieber wrote: "In our time, when the most offensive shrieking under the extenuating device of 'dramatic singing' has spread everywhere, when the ignorant masses appear much more interested in how loud rather than how beautiful the singing is, a collection of songs will perhaps be welcome which – as the title purports – may assist in restoring bel canto to its rightful place."

Maria Callas

Bel canto

Maria-Diana Dutica